NEW YORK & MEXICO CITY—Grupo Televisa, S.A.B and Univision Holdings II, Inc. have announced they’ve completed their $4.8 billion merger, creating a new company, TelevisaUnivision, Inc., that will reach over 100 million Spanish-language speakers every day on TV, digital and audio.
Completing the merger comes as TelevisaUnivision is gearing up to launch a major streaming service for the Spanish speaking audiences in 2022, with free and premium tiers, and large offering of original Spanish-language entertainment, sports and news.
The Company’s new investors include SoftBank Latin America Fund, Google and The Raine Group.
“The close of our transaction marks a historic moment for our company and our industry,” said TelevisaUnivision CEO Wade Davis. “We are combining two iconic and market-leading companies that have a rich, shared history and an incredible portfolio of assets. This combination will create a business without comparison in the global media landscape. Over the past year both companies have transformed themselves, reaching levels of financial performance and audience resonance that has not been seen for years. The power and momentum of the transformed core business is truly unique and will be a springboard for the upcoming launch of the preeminent Spanish-language streaming service. The new trajectory of our company is supported by our new ownership group, which is well positioned to amplify the efforts of one of the best leadership teams in the world.”
“The combination of content assets from Televisa and Univision, the two leading media companies from the two largest Spanish-speaking markets in the world, has created a company with tremendous potential,” said Alfonso de Angoitia, executive chairman of the TelevisaUnivision Board of Directors. “With our attractive financial profile and history of innovation, TelevisaUnivision is ready to revolutionize the industry by delivering the most comprehensive Spanish-language content offering to audiences around the world.”
The new company will combine Televisa’s four broadcast channels, 27 pay-TV channels, Videocine movie studio, Blim TV subscription video-on-demand service, and the Televisa trademark, with Univision’s assets in the U.S., which include the Univision and UniMás broadcast networks, nine Spanish-language cable networks, 59 television stations and 57 radio stations in major U.S. Hispanic markets, and the PrendeTV AVOD platform.
It also has the largest Spanish-language content library in the world, with 300,000 hours of content, an extensive portfolio of IP and sports rights, and a large infrastructure for producing new content.
As a result of the combination, TelevisaUnivision reaches over 60% of the respective TV audiences in both the U.S. and Mexico, the company said, putting them well positioned supply entertainment and services to the global Spanish-speaking population of nearly 600 million, which represents an aggregate GDP of approximately $7 trillion.
The company also noted that they remain on track to launch its previously announced unified global streaming service in 2022, which will include both a free and a premium subscription tier.
Reuters is reporting that the launch will occur in the first half of the year.
The service will have the largest offering of original Spanish-language content in the U.S. and Latin America, including dramas, comedies, docuseries, game shows, reality shows, variety programs, movies, musical and cultural events, children’s and educational programs, sports and special events, as well as news programming.
Wade Davis will lead TelevisaUnivision as CEO. Alfonso de Angoitia will serve as executive chairman of the TelevisaUnivision Board and Marcelo Claure will become vice chairman of the Board.
The TelevisaUnivision Board will also be comprised of Emilio Azcárraga, Bernardo Gómez, Michel Combes, Gisel Ruiz, Oscar Muñoz, Maria Cristina “MC” Gonzalez Noguera, Eric Zinterhofer and Jeff Sine. In addition, Televisa retains the right to appoint two additional directors.
